Over 3,000 people died today of COVID-19 in our country.
Non-emergency medical procedures are being postponed in my state.
Seven day positivity rates are 14% or more in a majority of our states.
And yet, with all of this, there is no national response to bring our numbers down. There also is no political will to enforce any sort of plan at state levels to control the spread, mainly mandating, and enforcing, the use of a mask placed correctly on one’s face.
When there is no leadership, and no enforcement, on any serious matter, things get out of control. COVID-19 is out of control. Our hospitals are filling up, our healthcare workers are burning out, our businesses are closing, and our elected and spiritual leaders are continuing to refuse to acknowledge there is a problem. This intentional ignorance is costing people their lives, and their livelihoods.
Then there is the election denials. We have election officials being threatened with violence and death. Armed people are showing up outside their homes openly displaying their guns. Attempting to intimidate, not protest, intimidate these officials into doing their will, not the will of the American electorate. Sadly, though no one should be subjected to these threats, it isn’t just the top brass of election oversight being threatened, it is now the line workers being threatened too.
In a galling and appalling new fight, one state has decided to sue four states in which the incumbent lost. Not all the states in which the incumbent lost, but only the three spotlighted swing states plus Georgia are being targeted. The Attorney General of one state is trying to subvert four states to his will because in his mind, the incumbent couldn’t have lost by popular vote in those states. Since the results aren’t what they wanted, the results must be wrong. Even when, even when, those states have had at least one recount, and in one, three recounts, with the same end results—the incumbent lost.
True to nature, the trumplicans are also upping their fight to suppress the votes of nonwhite voters. Elected leaders are closing polling places in an area of largely nonwhite voters in Georgia for the January runoff senatorial races. In this same state, the Legislature has already signaled they are going to pass laws to make it even harder for people in general, but poor and nonwhite voters specifically, to vote in future elections.
Sadly, it continues to be proven, the trumplicans, elected and lay people don’t care about anyone but themselves. They seem to believe themselves so privileged that any election that doesn’t go their way must be wrong. They seem to believe if you aren’t white, and don’t vote in the way the whites demand, your vote should be thrown to the curb. They seem to believe they have the privileged right to get sick (which is fine), but to also place the rest of us in danger by ignoring mask and social gathering mandates.
Shame on our leaders. And also, shame on the people who continue to elect them back into positions of power. Shame on we the people too for continuing to allow our leaders to continue their false narratives, voter suppression, and through dereliction of duty, to kill fellow Americans by the hundreds of thousands.
When is enough enough? I mean really, when. is. enough. enough?!
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 